Glued flap box blank air hold down mechanism



Dec. 20,1966 w. GROBMAN ETAL 3,292,503

GLUED FLAP BOX BLANK AIR HOLD DOWN MECHANISM Filed Oct l4 FIG. I.

INVENTORS: ALBERT BUTTLE WILLIAM GROBMAN CHARLES B. TOBIAS ATTYS.

United States Patent poration of New Jersey Filed Oct. 14, 1963, Ser. No. 316,494 8 Claims. (CI. 93-36) The present invention relates to glued flap box machincry and more particularly to an improved machine to provide air hold down means at a compression section.

Heretofore folder gluer machines have been utilized which take a pre-scored box blank of various materials such as corrugated board, cardboard, solid board and others, and wherein the box blanks comprise four panels in side-by-side relation and on an edge of which a glue flap is provided, and apply glue to the flap and subsequently fold the blank into a folded condition, and subsequently hold down means are utilized to maintain the blank in folded condition until the glue has sufliciently set so as to prevent improper or inadequate glueing. At the same time precautions are taken to insure proper alignment or squaring of the panels in the folded blank.

The present invention is directed primarily to the hold down means referred to above, and a construction and operation are provided which eliminates previous drawbacks such as mechanical hold down means which utilized pressure wheels or the like which can result in crushing and/ or marring of the printing.

To this end the present invention utilizes an air hold down construction at a compression section following a folder gluer section in which box blanks have been glued and folded to form a folded box blank. I

An object of the invention is to provide air hold down means to prevent the glued joint from springing open after ejection from the gluer folder section, and in addition apply pressure to the glued joint during a squaring operation so that the squared box blank will stay in squared condition.

An additional feature of the invention eliminates the necessity of mechanical hold downs such as wheels which necessitate adjustment to accommodate different sizes'of boxes.

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the air hold down device of the present invention, portions thereof being broken away for clarity;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken on line 3, 3 of FIG. 2 and showing its arrangement with respect to the discharge end of a folder gluer section; I

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a folded box blank of atype adapted to be processed in the apparatus of the present invention, with a portion thereof being removed for clar ity; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of the folded box blank of FIG. 4, schematically depicting the direction of air hold down pressure, and showing in broken lines a folded box blank in the absence of hold down pressure thereon.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 4 a folded box blank generally designated of a type adapted for processing with the present invention, and which has previously been treated in the folder gluer section of the machine by application of glue to the flap and then folded as shown in FIG. 4 and in solid lines in FIG. 5. The box blank used for illustrative purposes includes four adjacent panels 12, 14, 16 and 18, all formed from a single sheet of material and separated or defined by score lines 20. Slots 22 are also provided to define individual end flaps for closure of the box subsequent to erection and which are further defined by score lines as at 24. On the end of panel 12 a glue flap 26 has been provided and usually formed in a printer slotter section of an overall machine. A gluer folder section of any known type can be used to apply glue to the flap 26 and subsequently fold the blank to form the folded blank as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Ordinarily there are two criterions which must be met subsequent to this processing which include means for maintaining proper contact between the glued flap and the abutted panel until such time as the glue has sufiiciently set to prevent dislodgment and/0r misalignment of the panels, since the glue as applied is in such liquid form that fast adherence does not immediately occur.. Additionally there is the problem of possible spring-back of the glued joint as schematically depicted in broken lines at 28 in FIG. 5. The natural resiliency of the material from which the box blank is formed tends to cause this spring-back at the fold or score lines as is well known in the art.

The gluer folder section is fragmentarily shown at 30 and in a usual manner includes upper and lower belt runs 32 and 34 entrained over cylinders 36 and 38. These belts coact to convey the blank 10 to a rejection point. A resilient toothed wheel 40 is positioned at the discharge end to coact with the lower run of belt 32 and provides sufficient friction to insurethat the blank will be discharged fr-om'the end of this section.

The so ejected or discharged blanks are dropped onto a shingling conveyor generally designated 42 for further treatment and movement to a stacking station. It is this region in the overall machine wherein the present invention resides.

A continuous belt 44 is entrained over rotatably mounted end cylinders'46 and 48. The belt is adapted to be driven at a slower rate of speed than the belts in the gluer folder section so as to provide sufficient time for setting of the glue and utilizing as short a run as possible. This results in a shingling or stacking arrangement of the blanks as seen in FIG. 1 of the drawings and this arrangement additionally aids in preventing spring-back of the blanks. The drive is from the main drive of the folder gluer by means of a speed reducer schematically shown at 50 which is operatively connected with the main drive. A shaft 52 is driven from speed reducer 50- and cylinder 46 is driven through transmission 54 and cylinder shaft 56. The blanks when discharged from the folder gluer section are dropped onto the moving belt 44 and as pointed out above, are in a shingled or stacked relation due to the relative speeds of the belts.

Heretofore similar apparatus has utilized wheels or the like along this conveyor run to prevent spring-back of the blanks until the glue has been set or other mechanical hold down means could be used. Ordinarily however such mechanical hold down means were known to crush the material of the blanks and/or mar the printing as previously applied to the blank. In order to overcome this, the present invention utilizes an air device to exert downward pressure. In the embodiment shown for illustrative purposes, this includes a hood 58 having internally arranged louvers 60. A header 62 is connected to a suitable source of air such as a blower which preferably will supply air at low pressure and high volume to the header 62 as indicated by the arrow at 64 and thence into the hood 58 by branch conduits 66 arranged at various locations and in which valves 68 can be provided to control the flow of air to various sections of the hood. By this arrangement, air is forced downwardly as indicated by arrows 70 substantially perpendicular to the upper surfaces of the folded and glued box blanks on the shingling -plate 72 but on the opposite side thereof;

conveyor. This has proven very effective in preventing spring-back of the blanks. It is to be understood that while the hood is shown as extending substantially from one end of the shingling conveyor to the other, that the invention is not to be considered limited thereto since, if desired, the flow of air could be restricted to any portion of the shingling conveyor but preferably including that area where the blank is first dropped onto the conveyor, at which point the glue has not become set. It is also possible to vary and control the flow of air at different areas or regions of the shingling conveyor as dictated by conditions prevailing. It will be noted that the bottom of the hood is above the conveyor a substantial distance which permits adjustments of squaring means for the boards as will appear hereinafter without having to move the hood. It has been found in practice that this invention is especially useful on small boxes where panels are relatively short, although it works equally well on all sizes of cartons and is less complex and cumbersome than mechanical methods heretofore used.

An additional feature of the present invention is to provide means whereby perfectalignment of the various portions of the box blank is insured so that the subsequently erected box will be perfect. To this end, squaring means are provided in the area of initial dropping of the blanks onto the shingling conveyor.

The squaring means includes a vertically mounted squaring plate 72 aligned with the longitudinal axis of the shingling conveyor. A bracket 74 is mounted on the side frame of the shingling conveyor and carries at its upper. end a U-shaped member 76 which has formed therein coacting grooves 78 on either side. A plate or spline member 80 is slidably mounted in the grooves and carries at its outer end an internally threaded collar 82 in threaded en- 7 gagement with threaded shaft 84 which is rotatably carried in the bracket member. The shaft has a handwheel or the .like 86 which upon rotation will serve to move squaring plate 72 toward or away from the inner end of the belt 42. This permits adjustment of the squaring plate to accommodate different widths of box blanks in an obvious manner. The folded blanks discharged from the folder gluer section are impinged against the squaring plate 72. In order to insure the squareness of the box blanks while the adhesive is still not completely set, a reciprocating squaring plate 88 is provided which extends along the run of the belt in substantially the same region as squaring The plate 88 is pivotally mounted on shafts 90 journalled in bearings generally designated 92. An arm 94 is pivotally connected to plate 88 as indicated at 96. This arm is journalled on an extended end of shaft 98 of cylinder 38 by -means of an eccentric 100. As the shaft 98 rotates accordingly the plate will be reciprocated in a manner to abut against the side of blanks deposited upon the shingling conveyor and act to align the edges by cooperation with the plate 72. During this operation, the air impinging upon the upper surfaces, of the box blanks will insure that thebox blank will be pressed down and when squared will maintain a squared condition.

The air pressure, when using a hood as shown, will continue to apply pressure to the glued joint while it is 'on the conveyor and the glue is setting up so that upon discharge at a stacking station the joint will be set and the final setup of the adhesive takes place in the bundle. The use of the air. pressure also serves to press down on the blanks on the conveyor to increase frictional contact therewith to prevent slippage. It will also be apparent that the air utilized could, if desired, be heated to facilitate setting of the glue.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been hereinabove described and shown in the drawings, it will be apparent that minor changes in structure could be utilized without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in and limited solely by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a box blank folder gluer machine having a gluer folder section, a folded blank conveyor positioned at the discharge end of the gluer folder section to receive glued and folded blanks therefrom, and means positioned above said conveyor in the region where blanks are deposited thereon operable to direct a blast of air downwardly onto the upper surfaces of folded and glued blanks thereon as they are positioned on the conveyor to prevent the glued joint from springing open until the glue has been at least partially set.

2. In a box blank folder gluer machine as claimed in claim 1, box blank squaring means positioned on the sides of the conveyor where the blanks are deposited thereon operable to square the box blanks, said air blast means being operable to apply downward pressure on a box blank while it is being squared.

3. In a box blank folder gluer machine as claimed in claim 2,'said air blast means extending over substantially the entire run of the conveyor to apply pressure to the glued joint of the box blankiwhile being conveyed to the discharge end of the conveyor.

4. In a box blank folder gluer machine as claimed in claim 3, said air blast means including control means whereby pressure and flow distribution can be varied for optimum operation.

5. A glued flap box blank hold down mechanism comprising a gluer folder section, a moving conveyor for receiving glued and folded box blanks, said conveyor adapted to convey glued and folded 'box blanks to a discharge station, the direction of movementof said conveyor being substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the glued and folded box blanks as delivered from the folder gluer, means positioned above said conveyor in the region .where blanks are depositedthereon operable to direct a blast of air downwardly onto the upper surfaces of blanks thereon as they are positioned on the conveyor to prevent the glued joint from springing open until the glue has been at least partially set.

6. A glued fiap box blank hold down mechanism comprising a moving conveyor adapted to receive glued and folded box blanks and convey them to a discharge station, means positioned above said conveyor in the region where blanks are deposited thereon operable to direct a blast of air downwardly onto the upper surfaces of blanks thereon as they are positioned on the conveyor to prevent the glued joint from springing open until the glue has been at least partially set, box blank squaring means positioned on the sides of the conveyor where the blanks are deposited thereon operable to square the box blanks, said air blast means being operable to apply downward pressure on a box blank while it is being squared.

7. A glued flap box blank hold down mechanism as claimed in claim 6, said air blast means extending over substantially the entire run of the conveyor to apply pressure to the glued joint of the box blank while being conveyed to the discharge end of the conveyor.

8. A glued flap :box blank hold down mechanism as claimed in claim 7, "said air blast means including control means whereby pressure and flow distribution can be varied for optimum operation.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,928,220 3/1960 Kannengeisseret al. 53-373 X 2,976,780 3/1961 Lopez et al 93-36 3,073,217 1/1963 Spalding et al. 93--52 BERNARD STICKNEY, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A BOX BLANK FOLDER GLUER MACHINE HAVING A GLUER FOLDER SECTION, A FOLDED BLANK CONVEYOR POSITIONED AT THE DISCHARGE END OF THE GLUER FOLDER SECTION TO REVEIVE GLUED AND FOLDED BLANKS THEREFROM, AND MEANS POSITIONED ABOVE SAID CONVEYOR IN THE REGION WHERE BLANKS ARE DEPOSITED THEREON OPERABLE TO DIRECT A BLAST OF AIR DOWNWARDLY ONTO THE UPPER SURFACES OF FOLDED AND GLUED BLANKS THEREON AS THEY ARE POSITIONED ON THE CONVEYOR TO PREVENT THE GLUED JOINT FROM SPRINGING OPEN UNTIL THE GLUE HAS BEEN AT LEAST PARTIALLY SET. 